National Alert: Nigeria Is Broke! – By Elvis Iyorngurum

This is a very important national call on all Nigerians. Regardless of your ethnicity, religion, social status or age, there is danger hovering around us all. We are facing a great threat which is capable of bringing this huge nation of ours down to a state of total collapse, except we act in a most patriotic and impassionate manner to avert this danger. We are preoccupied with politics, but we need to pause, reason and act to save our future.

Here is the threat my beloved compatriots: our country is broke, the federal government cannot meet its financial obligation to contractors, capital projects are at a standstill and federal civil servants are being owed up to three months of salaries. It is worse for the states, many cannot pay their civil servants, not to talk of executing projects for the welfare of the people. The fall of the Naira has made things worse. In the last couple of weeks, if you have been to the market, you would have noticed how the prices of commodities have shot up. Inflation is rising at an alarming rate while income is on a downward slide. We are heading to where nations like Ghana and Zimbabwe got, where a loaf of bread will cost 100,000 Naira. This threat is real, the state of the economy is very bad and the effect is trickling down to the common man.

Let us be very honest, all sentiments aside. Nigeria has earned in the past six years, more than ever before in her history. We earned billions of dollars from high oil prices, so much we had an excess crude account. Our foreign reserve also reached its highest point ever, in our history. All that money is gone and unfortunately, oil prices have crashed. The foreign debts have returned! Obasanjo cleared our foreign debts but within the past six years, we have borrowed over 17billion dollars! Then we failed to develop alternative sources of income while the oil boom lasted. Now the boom is gone and so also all the money we earned. What have we gained from all the money that has been squandered?

Let us be honest with ourselves, are we better employed now than we were six years ago? At the time our government was stupendously rich, did you enjoy any special service as a citizen? Do you have better electricity supply now? Is the cost of living more affordable to you now? Do you have water, better roads, schools or hospitals? And very importantly, our lives safer now and our future more secured?

This is not about politics any longer. It is not about tribe, religion or geographical origin. This also is not about we and them, neither is it a fight or beef or hatred. This is purely about our collective interest as a people. The hunger in Zamfara bites the same way as the hunger in Abeokuta. The suffering in the East and West is the same as that in the Central, North and South. We may speak different languages and profess different faiths, but our fate is the same and we must unite to uplift it.

We have been lied to by this government over and over again. Our dignity has been assaulted as if we are only good to be lied to, cheated and reduced to beggars in our own country. We cannot count, but remember the subsidy scam? The pension scam? The lie about cease fire with Boko Haram? The military say they’re winning the present war, but they’re not showing us Boko Haram fighters that have been killed, captured or have surrendered. They’re only displacing them further into the Mandara mountains so that the government will conduct the polls and they will return after the elections. This is a fact that you can figure out yourself, you’re intelligent enough to know when you’re being deceived.

My brothers and sisters, in our cities, there’s so much suffering, so much hunger, pain and lack. And it is worse in our villages. There is no hope other than the one we make for ourselves. We need to save our country from the present government. The rate of corruption is too much for us to bear. And the government is deep in it and incapable of saving itself, let alone saving us.

Some people say Jonathan is a good man and even if we assume he is, he has been swallowed by the evil system of corrupt officials within his government, the PDP and the oil industry. He lost control of the government long ago as even in his cabinet, there are people he cannot touch. He said the NSA did not inform him before sending the letter for postponement of elections to Jega. Obasanjo punished an IG of police, Tafa Balogun for corruption, during his tenure. Adolphos Wabara, a Senate President and Prof Fabian Osuji, a serving Minister, we’re also punished for corruption, among many other public officials. But Jonathan has not been able to punish even one individual, in spite of glaring cases of corruption, not even for the NIS recruitment scam that led to the murder of innocent job seekers, including a mother of two. The man that made the scam is till date, a Minister in his cabinet. Jonathan cannot rule this country effectively and the corrupt forces benefiting from his weakness, including military generals, are the ones fighting for him to remain. Why do they want Jega out at all cost and why do they not want the card reader to be used for the elections? If they’re sure they have performed, why are they afraid of a free and fair election? Why do they want a chance to rig our votes, to make sure our standing under the sun to cast our votes ends a useless waste of energy? Doesn’t it bother you that someone is kicking against a technology that will protect your vote?

My dear compatriots, at this critical point in our history, we need to make a choice that is wise, devoid of sentiments and in our best interest. In a few days time, we will go to the polls to elect a new President. Please let us elect a man that is not part of the corrupt system. Gen Muhammadu Buhari is a man of integrity, a man that has never had his name tainted with corruption. He has a reputation of discipline and zero-tolerance for corruption and illegality. He is a man that cannot be pushed around and will not have people around him that are beyond his control. Let us give him a chance to lead us to turn a new leaf in our national life. Corruption is a singular factor that has kept us where we are and even the First Lady, Patience Jonathan, has been bearing him witness in her campaigns that he will jail corrupt people. He has shown a passion to serve his country and is contesting for the 4th time. He is ready, capable and fit to give us the leadership that will make us proud to see this nation become great in our life time.

This is a call to national service, a call to save our nation, our future and our generations to come, from the danger hovering over us. Again, this is not about politics, religion, ethnicity, sectionalism or anything other than our collective interest. Please let us make this choice, cast your vote for the APC presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari and wait, watch over your vote, protect it and make sure it counts.

Thank you very much and God bless Nigeria.

Contact: elvisnigeria@yahoo.co.uk; @elvisyorngurum

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